Prince Harry has claimed his father Prince Charles stopped taking his calls, after he decided to step down as a senior working member of the Royal family.
The Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle joined Oprah Winfrey for an explosive interview which aired on CBS on Sunday night.
In the bombshell interview, the 36-year-old said that Queen Elizabeth was not blindsided by the couple’s decision to step down, revealing he had three phone conversations with the British monarch.
When asked by the US chat show host why Charles stopped answering his calls, Harry said: “Because I took matters into my own hands.”
“It was like I need to do this for my family. This is not a surprise to anybody; it’s really sad that it’s got to this point, but I’ve got to do something for my own mental health, for my wife’s, because I could see where this is headed.”
Harry said everything changed after he and Meghan went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand.
“My grandmother has been amazing throughout. My father, brother, Kate, and all the rest of the family – they were they were really welcoming. But it really changed after our Australia tour.”
“It was also the first time that the family got to see how incredible [Meghan] is at the job. And that brought back memories.”
“When I’m talking about history repeating itself, I’m talking about my mother,” he said, referring to the late Princess Diana.
“When you can see something happening in the same kind of way…to receive no help at all and to be told continuously this is how it is, this is just how it is. We’ve all been through it.”
“This union, us, me having a girlfriend was going to be a thing…just the two of us to start with. I hadn’t really thought about the mixed-race piece because I thought, well, I’ve spent many years doing the work and doing my own learning…my god it doesn’t take you very long until you became aware of it.”
“It takes living in her shoes in this instance for a day or those first eight days to see where it was gonna go and how far they were gonna take it and get away with it and be so blatant about it.”
“We’re talking about the U.K. press here. And the U.K. is my home; that was where I was brought up. I’ve got my own relationship with the media. I asked for calm with the British tabloids: once as a boyfriend, once as a husband, and once as a father.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to Los Angeles last March, after stepped down as senior working members of the Royal family.
On Valentine’s Day, the couple announced they are expecting their second child together, revealing in the interview that they are expecting a baby girl.
Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A Primetime Special airs on RTÉ2 tonight at 9:30pm.
